The manager at Ashley's Furniture Store is trying to figure out how much to charge for a desk that just arrived. If the desk was bought at a wholesale price of $159.00 and Ashley's Furniture Store marks up all furniture by 70%, at what price should the manager sell the desk?
Answer: In order to find the retail price, we must first find the amount of markup. Remember that a markup rate is a percentage of the wholesale price that a store adds to get a selling or retail price. With this knowledge, we can figure out the following equation: markup rate $\times$ wholesale price $=$ amount of markup Since the markup rate is a percentage, we have to convert it into a decimal first. Percent means "out of one hundred," so $70\%$ is equivalent to $\frac{70}{100}$ which is also equal to $70 \div 100$ $70 \div 100 = 0.70$ Now you have all the information you need to find the amount of markup! $0.70$ $\times$ $$159.00$ $=$ $$111.30$ Since the markup rate is a percentage of the wholesale price that is added to get the retail price, we can find the retail price with the following equation: amount of markup $+$ wholesale price $=$ retail price $$111.30$ $+$ $$159.00$ $=$ $$270.30$ The retail price of the desk should be $$270.30$.